The etymologist finds the deadest words to have been once…

“The reader, knowing nothing about the ‘dark continent,’ filled in the blanks. Pictured Stone in a tent, kerosene lamp held up by a Hottentot…

— Abraham Verghese

Etymology: from Latin ad-, "to" + visum, past participle of videre, "to see". Advice is what you get from your parents when you are…

— Evan Esar

“It's a totally ridiculous, completely unsexy word. If you use it during sex, trying to be politically correct-- "Darling, could you stroke my vagina?"--…

— Eve Ensler

Democracy is something America has never really practiced. Because the Founding Fathers hated two things: monarchy and democracy. They wanted a republic, a replica…

— Gore Vidal

The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things…

— Giambattista Vico

“The association of the wild and the wood also run deep in etymology. The two words are thought to have grown out of the…

— Robert Macfarlane

I have observed gratitude to be a principle, that bears the smallest share in the hearts of those where it ought to be most…

— Charlotte Charke

Prayer or not, I want to believe that, despite all evidence to the contrary, it is possible for anyone to find that one special…

— Rachel Cohn

“We open our mouths and out flow words whose ancestries we do not even know. We are walking lexicons. In a single sentence of…

— Penelope Lively

“Moving from phonetics to etymology, ‘vagina’ originates from a word meaning sheath for a sword. Ain’t got no vagina.”

— Inga Muscio

“IN THE fifteenth century, a swampy parcel of land in the sestieri of Cannaregio was set aside for the construction of a new brass…

— Daniel Silva

The word ‘sin’ is derived from the Indo-European root ‘es-,’ meaning ‘to be.’ When I discovered this etymology, I intuitively understood that for a…

— Mary Daly

“The word legend comes from the Latin “legere,” which means “to read.” The word fiction comes from the Latin “fingere,” which means “to form.”…

— Nomi Eve

Do not lose your enthusiasm. In its Greek etymology, the word enthusiasm means, "God in us."

— Ken Burns

“He wonders aloud at the origins of valentining. 'You're right,' Rachel says. 'It is a verb. Can be. And birds valentine each other, make…

— Emma Richler